


A New Tradition

by outerink



Series: The Misadventures of Dusk [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Ink is a good “friend”, M/M, Passive Nightmare, These two are baby, Uncorrupted Nightmare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:54:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26446678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outerink/pseuds/outerink
Summary: It’s time an old tradition changed.
Relationships: Ink/Nightmare, Inkmare - Relationship, Nightmare/Ink, Sans/Sans (Undertale), nightink
Series: The Misadventures of Dusk [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1922482
Comments: 4
Kudos: 72





	A New Tradition

Every two decades, the village hosted a large ball. 

It was a tradition that the villagers refused to get rid of. Everyone would spend the night dancing and hanging out together. Parents planned for their children to meet other children who could likely be their romantic partner in the near future. 

This sounded like a good thing and it would be, if it wasn’t for the tree being the ‘centerpiece’ of every single ball they had. On most of these nights, Nightmare would find a safe place to hide and stay there for a night or two.

He was prepared to do this, like he had done so much in the past, but his brother stopped him. Apparently, Dream was able to convince the villagers to let Nightmare stay this time around. Right away this surprised the embodiment of negativity and made him feel suspicious. His brother’s bright eyes filled with excitement stopped him from running off, though.

And now, there he was, on the outskirts of the ball as he watched everyone have fun. Reading was proven to be difficult due to the loud music being played and the many conversations people were holding.

Despite this, the urge to dance was strong. Nightmare held himself back, knowing that going to the dancefloor would only be a mistake. The villagers would hurt him, just like they always did! Besides, he didn’t even know how to dance! Why would he — these events were usually open to everyone except for him!

So, he did nothing but watch. Dream was in the distance teaching a happy, giggling toddler how to dance. Her parents watched in complete awe, wide smiles on their faces as their young one began to do the steps correctly.

Nightmare frowned. 

He could never do anything like that.

A sudden tap on his shoulder made him jump. He turned around with wide eyes, desperately hoping that a group of villagers had found him.

“I-Ink?!”

“Hi Nighty!”

Ink. It had been a little bit since he last visited, but he looked just as cheerful as always. His eyes were bright and his grin was  _ real.  _

However, his smile dropped when he noticed the upset expression on his friend’s face.

“Night? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing! Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

His frown revealed how he truly felt, though. Ink set a hand on his shoulder wordlessly, glancing around at their surroundings and trying to find angry villagers. It wasn’t until he caught Nightmare glancing at the dancers that he realized what may be happening.

“Isn’t today the Feelings Ball? Why aren’t you dancing?”

Nightmare crossed his arms, “I shouldn’t…”

“But you bring feelings, too!”

“Only bad ones. The villagers probably don’t wanna be anywhere near me.”

“Nonsense. Come on!”

“Ink-”

“It’ll be fun!”

_ “Ink-” _

“Please?”

_ “Ink!”  _ Finally, that caught the artist’s attention. “I don’t know how to dance!”

The guardian fell into a stunned silence. Embarrassed by his admission, Nightmare glared to the side as a purple blush stained his cheeks, “None of it has ever made sense to me, and…”

“Well… you can try to learn how to dance here! It’s the best day to learn the steps because everyone else is too distracted to notice!”

Nightmare raised a brow and faced the other, “Ink, I don’t have a dance instructor.”

“Oh, right…” Ink’s voice trailed off and he glanced around. Something must’ve caught his attention, seeing as how his eyelights turned into exclamation points.

The smile that followed this had Nightmare worried. That smirk of his  _ always _ meant he had come up with some horrible scheme.

“Ink-”

Before he could continue, Ink grabbed his hand and ran, tugging a confused Nightmare along with him. The ball’s music got louder and louder as they neared it, causing Nightmare to panic.

No. No way his best friend was taking him to the ball, right?

Wrong.

They stopped a few feet away from the dance floor. Ink let go of his hand and walked to the edge of it, holding out his hand with a dorky grin.

“What I was trying to say was… come dance with me! I can teach you!”

The embodiment of negativity paused. His cheeks glowed purple when the  _ Multiversal guardian’s  _ eyelights changed into hearts, one pink and the other inverted and purple. 

“This is stupid…” He glanced around and realized that no one had even noticed his presence yet. With a hesitant step forward, he reached out and grabbed Ink’s hand.

Bright stars filled Ink’s eyelights and showed a mix of surprise and excitement. Although nervous, Nightmare was able to flash a flustered grin at him. A rainbow hue lit up Ink’s cheeks and he pulled the other onto the dance floor, giggling with each step they took.

At first, the dance wasn’t too bad. Fortunately they didn’t need to get too fancy yet, giving them time to enjoy themselves and start off slowly. 

To Nightmare’s surprise, Ink was an  _ incredible  _ dancer. His steps were perfect and his motions were graceful. It brought out a different side to him that the slightly smaller boy had never seen before. 

He would have looked much  _ more  _ graceful if it wasn’t for Nightmare messing up every few minutes. Ink winced the first few times that he stepped on his foot, but quickly shook it off and continued to try to teach him.

Eventually, the embodiment of negativity caught the gist of what he had to do. His steps began to feel more natural and he could have a bit of fun, occasionally laughing at Ink’s horrible jokes or purposely making a wrong move. In the distance, he could see Dream glancing at him with a worried expression.

Of course he would take this as his brother just being worried about him, but the small voice in the back of his head told him otherwise. It’s whispering had slowly gotten stronger over the years. Nothing it said was kind. As a matter of fact, it tried to make him believe that Dream didn’t  _ want  _ to see him happy.

He quickly forced the horrible thought to the back of his mind and instead focused on his friend’s eyelights. Both of them changed shape and color with every blink, giving them some sort of mystery as to what would come next. Of course he knew this was a result of the vials, but he didn’t care too much. As long as Ink was happy, he was happy as well!

The music got faster as time passed. Neither of them minded this, but they both had an unspoken agreement: they didn’t want this night to end. As the sky darkened and the stars shone through the clouds, both of them tried to enjoy everything a little more to make the experience more memorable.

One of the songs was a little slower than the rest, however. Nightmare had his arms slipped around Ink’s waist while the other held him close, leading their dance with those enchanting eyes of his. 

Then, out of the blue, there was a yell. It startled the crowd, who all turned to face whoever made the loud noise. The culprit, a tall woman with blue eyes and brown hair, pointed in a direction with a terrified expression.

She pointed right in  _ his _ direction.

In Nightmare’s direction. 

The embodiment of negativity had been expecting this. Everyone was shouting at him and screaming, some even going as far as to throw rocks at him. Understandably, Ink had to get them out of there as soon as possible. On impulse, he grabbed the other and teleported away.

By the time they reached the top of the hill, both of them were panting. Nightmare held back his tears as he sat down, hugging his knees to his chest.

“I’m sorry…”

Confused by his words, Ink grew concerned. “What? Why?”

“I ruined your night…”

Instantly, the artist sat down next to him and held him close. “No you didn’t…! This night is only just beginning!”

He sniffled, facing the other with a confused expression. “What do you mean…?”

Ink didn’t reply, instead standing up and walking off. Confused as to where he was going, the negative guardian jumped up and chased after him. 

The stars above them continued to glimmer as they made their way across a field full of flowers. Needless to say, it was beautiful. Nightmare had been here a few times before, although it was rare for him to leave the tree behind.

“Ink…? Why are we here?”

When the other finally stopped walking and faced him, Nightmare felt a pounding in his ‘soul.’ His friend had a determined expression.

“If they won’t let you enjoy yourself, then they’re gonna miss out on an experience far more fun than that stupid ball they always throw!”

Obviously, Nightmare only grew more confused. “What are you talking about?”

The sight of Ink holding up a phone only made him grow even more confused. Quickly, the artist tapped a few buttons before placing the small device down.

Music began to come out of it. It was  _ their  _ playlist, full of songs they played while they did wild things all across the Multiverse. A violet blush returned to his cheeks when Ink began to dance like an absolute dork.

It certainly wasn’t as fancy as the ball. As a matter of fact, it was more  _ fun  _ this time! They were able to dance however they wanted! At some points, they danced together, but at other parts they each did solos. 

Eventually, the early morning hours began to creep up on them. Neither of them were tired, instead high on the excitement and happiness that this experience allowed them to have. Truthfully, Nightmare hadn’t felt this carefree in  _ years.  _ **_Decades,_ ** even. 

They were dancing together now, although their moves were horrible and dorky. One of them would do something dumb and the other would laugh at them. Usually, Nightmare hated to be laughed at. He didn’t mind this, though, and ended up laughing at himself as well.

Currently, the two of them were running around and pretending to be airplanes. Their arms were spread out as they ran, jokingly making ‘plane noises’ as they did. When Nightmare accidentally tripped over Ink’s foot, he was sent falling back.

He never hit the floor.

Instead, Ink had caught him. The guardian looked concerned for him, but the fall was the last thing on Nightmare’s mind. His  _ crush  _ (it felt good to finally accept it) was leaning over him, holding him up with both of his arms. If he had just moved a  _ little  _ bit, they would have kissed.

Their awkward silence was cut short when Ink began to giggle. Somehow, he laughed at  _ everything,  _ even things he wouldn’t find funny on any other given occasion. Nightmare didn’t find this to be funny, but the sound of his laughter was enough to make him chuckle as well. Soon enough, both of them were loudly laughing at everything: at his fall, at how Ink caught him, at the whole night in general… 

At some point, their laughter blended in together in perfect sync. That was all it took for them to laugh even  _ harder. _

When they finally stopped, they were alone.

Nightmare jumped up glancing around and failing to find Ink. Ink, on the other hand, watched this happen from afar and chuckled.

**_Dusk_ ** looked down at their hands in silent realization. He flexed his fingers, eyelights widening as he glanced over himself. 

“We fused again!” He whispered to himself. Within his mind, though, it was Nightmare who said that, “How did we… dancing causes fusion, right?  _ Oh! _ That explains it…”

The skeleton stood up and looked over his outfit. He giggled, spinning around with his arms spread apart.

“I’m back! What should I… we…?” His voice trailed off. A wave of determination came over him and he snickered to himself, “The perfect plan.  **I** just have to stay stable enough for it to work.”

The ball was still going on. Once again, Dream was dancing with some villager, laughing and even noticing Dusk’s presence. Perfect. Hopefully he won’t even notice him.

Dusk strolled onto the dancefloor with a sassy swing of his hips. The music was far too boring here, but he would need to make do. At this point, a few others had noticed him and paused. Of course he didn’t care, though. Why  _ should  _ he care about a bunch of humans who would only die soon?

He shut his eyes and tried to memorize the music’s rhythm. One, two, three, two, four...

And then he began his dance.

Yeah, he was doing a solo, but in reality he  _ was _ a duo. It’s not like the villagers crowding around him would know this, though. If they found out who he was, it wouldn’t go too well. 

People cheered him on, watching in amazement as he did rather impressive moves all on his own. Some people even clapped to the rhythm and helped him learn new moves on the fly. 

After finishing his solo, tons of villagers tried to get him to dance with them. Even the lady who had been terrified of Nightmare offered him a dance, to which he accepted. Besides ‘accidentally’ stepping on her foot a few times, everything was going well.

Dream would glance in his direction every few minutes, a proud smile on his face. Of course the embodiment of positivity was proud of one of his brother’s first fusions! At some point, the fusion would nod back at him, even waving a little with a coy grin.

When it was finally noon and the ball was over, Dusk walked back to the field and unfused. Despite everything that happened, it was still the best night of their lives.

“We’re doing this again next time, right?” Nightmare asked, looking hopeful for Ink’s agreement.

The artist nodded with a smirk, “Of course!”

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: outerink.tumblr.com


End file.
